VIII
Day after day, the First Allied Legion conducted large-scale military exercises at Galia Fortress. Meanwhile, another harsh training regime was going on every day in the military district of the Emaleid Citadel.
“The racket the soldiers of the Royal Army make just going through this simple exercise. Hah! No wonder you’ve been losing to the empire.”
“Say that again!”
“You must know it yourself, if it makes you so angry.”
“That’s right, she knows they’re a bunch of cowards.”
“Keep talking, scum!”
Not again. How do they not get sick of doing this every day? From the top of the stone steps, Blood cast a casual eye over the now routine scuffling between the Royal Army and the Winged Crusaders. From behind him, he heard the sound of boots on stone approaching, accompanied by a hint of citrus on the breeze.
“Need something?” he asked.
“I don’t need anything. Shouldn’t you stop them?” Blood looked around and his eyes met Lise’s. She looked unimpressed.
“Even if I stop them now, they’ll just be back at it again before long. It’s my policy not to be counterproductive.”
“That doesn’t excuse going entirely hands-off.”
“Hands-off, eh?” Blood replied. “Why don’t you tell that to our friend drinking tea over there.” Blood pointed to a corner of the training ground. Where she had procured it from was anyone’s guess, but Amelia sat there at a table, elegantly sipping from a teacup.
“It’ll only lead to hard feelings, coming from me,” Lise said, not looking at Amelia.
“What, and it won’t if I say it?”
“You surprise me. Are you not the commander of the Second Allied Legion after all?”
“Fine, fine,” Blood grumbled, heaving himself to his feet. “Of all the stupid...” Running his fingers through his hair, he made his way down into the thick of it.
“Looks like you’ve all got energy to burn!” he shouted. “How about going a round with me?” He looked to the Royal Army soldiers, who all shook their heads in horror. Then, he turned to the Winged Crusaders. One burly guardian stepped forward with a swagger.
“If it isn’t Lord Commander Blood! You came all this way to humiliate yourself?”
“Pretty feisty, aren’t you? I like that.” Blood tapped the sword at his waist pointedly.
The burly guardian grinned at him, then drew his own blade. “Too late to think better of it now,” he said. The guardian raised his sword threateningly, but before he’d finished the motion, Blood’s longsword had left its scabbard, the edge of the blade coming to rest against the man’s neck.
“Huh?”
“You’d be short a head now, if I’d felt like it,” Blood said. The guardian grasped what had happened, let out a voiceless cry, then fell down on his backside.
Blood looked around the other guardians and demanded, “Who’s next? I’m not standing on rank today.”
They all shuffled away uncomfortably.
Dear me. That’s them dealt with for today, at— Eh?
Blood felt an intense pressure from behind him and turned. Amelia was no longer delicately sipping her tea. Now, she had her chin resting on her hand, her gaze fixed on him. He shrank back despite himself, overcome by a sense of repulsion like a great snake had enveloped him in its coils.
Yikes. Heaven protect me. Blood hurried back up the stone steps. He pulled a cigarette from his pocket just as Lise came and sat down beside him. Thinking that she was a little too close, he lit the cigarette, then blew out a mouthful of smoke.
“I hope you’re satisfied,” he said.
“Witnessing the prowess of The Flash is enough to cow even the guardians of the Winged Crusaders, it seems.”
“I’m begging you to stop calling me that mortifying name.”
“Understood, ser,” Lise said, chuckling. Then she looked down at the soldiers, who had resumed their drills, her face turning grave. “This whole situation seems rather dire, though.”
Blood scarcely needed to be told. He wasn’t happy with it himself. If they went into battle against the imperial army like this, an internal breakdown in the ranks was inevitable. Having said that, Blood had come up with no ideas for how to better the situation.
“Guess it’s time to ask for help...”
“Ask who for help, ser?” Lise asked.
Blood looked at her. “I said that out loud?”
“Yes, ser. Loud and clear. Now, who are you going to ask for help?”
“You know there’s only one answer to that.” With his cigarette in his mouth, he stood up, then flew down the stairs two at a time. He was thinking of a certain young man.
“There he is, I knew he’d be here.” Blood found Ashton in the barracks mess hall with Olivia. Without asking, he sat down in an empty chair beside him, picked up a sausage from Ashton’s plate, and popped it into his mouth.
“Mm-hmm. That’s pretty tasty.”
“You can’t just go around eating people’s food, General Blood,” Olivia scolded him. “You should say ‘please’ to Ashton first.”
Seeing her frowning at him, Blood couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Olivia’s antics were a thousand times more entertaining than any second-rate comedy routine.
“You make a good point, Liv.”
“I never make anything but good points.”
“Oh? First I’m hearing of it,” Blood replied, pulling a face.
“General Blood,” said Ashton, looking curious, “did something happen?”
“We have a bit of a problem. Hence me coming here to borrow the mind of our great tactician.”
“Oh...” Ashton replied without enthusiasm. Blood snatched another sausage, at which Olivia, her cheeks bulging fit to burst, moved the plate away from him. He then explained the issue at hand to them.
Ashton sighed. “I thought that would be a problem too.”
“That sounds like you have some sort of solution in mind.”
“Well, I have something...” As Ashton replied, he glanced surreptitiously at Olivia. She cocked her head at him, all innocence.
“You want Liv to do something?”
“Well, yes. Only, it’s an idea that Colonel Claudia’s already rejected once before...”
Listening to the plan that Ashton proceeded to lay out, Blood thought it sounded like it would produce some results.
“You up for it, Liv?”
“Maybe... I just...” Olivia mumbled. Contrary to his expectations, her response was less than enthusiastic.
“You don’t want to?” he asked, privately perplexed.
“It’s Claudia...”
“Claudia? You’re worried about Colonel Claudia?”
“Mm...” As Olivia faltered, Ashton leaned over to whisper in his ear. What he said was so shocking that without thinking, Blood turned to stare at Olivia.
“You— Making Colonel Claudia angry scares you?”
“Yeah...” she said. “It really scares me.” She didn’t look like she was joking. Blood, who had never thought he’d hear such a thing, could only gape at her. This was Olivia, who had taken the heads of all those renowned enemy generals, who was spoken of with terror in the empire as the “Death God.” Who would have guessed that she was afraid of her own aide?
“I’m not surprised you don’t know, General Blood, but Colonel Claudia really is terrifying when she’s angry.”
“Then if I’m the one to suggest it, we’ll be away laughing. I am still the commander of the Second Allied Legion, you know. Colonel Claudia can’t argue with a decision from me. Right?”
Olivia nodded, looking unconvinced. Blood took the spyglass from the holster at his belt and held it out to her.
“Here. A little token of thanks.”
“But I’ve already got a spyglass,” she said.
“Come on, just go take a peek outside.”
“Okay...” Olivia got up and went over to look outside. Mere moments later, she let out a yelp of delight, turning back to him with a radiant smile as she bounced up and down. “This is amazing! It can see so much farther than any other spyglass!”
“You like it, then?”
“I love it! Thank you, General Blood!” She pulled a rag from her pocket, then happily set about polishing the spyglass. It was, Blood thought, a small price to pay to win her cooperation.
“Is that one of the new models?” Ashton asked with interest.
“I pulled a few strings,” Blood muttered in his ear. “Got them to lend me a model still in development.”
“So it’s a prototype, then?” Ashton looked at him dubiously. “Is that all right?”
Blood patted him on the shoulder, then stood up. “Not a problem. A small sacrifice for the greater good, as they say. Right, I’m counting on you two.” As Olivia excitedly urged Ashton to look through the spyglass himself, Blood strode from the mess hall.
The next day saw the training ground crowded with people.
“Is something happening?”
“They say Lieutenant General Olivia’s going to do something.”
“Straw dummies, now? Trust the Royal Army to have such innovative training methods.”
The center of the training ground was lined with columns of straw dummies placed at irregular intervals. Claudia stood amid the crowd of curious onlookers, with her fists trembling and a face like thunder. Meeting her eyes, Blood tried to act as though he were oblivious.
Liv and Ashton were right. These serious, straight-and-narrow types like her are bloody terrifying when they’re angry. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but it’s a damn relief I got Lise as my aide. She’s just the right amount of laid-back.
As Blood nodded to himself, Lise, who stood beside him, turned to him with disapproval in her eyes.
“Were you not just thinking something reprehensible about me?” she demanded.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Blood replied, as coolly as he could while privately panicking. Meeting Lise’s silent, expressionless hostility with flawless indifference, Blood called over to Olivia, who was stretching.
“Ready to go, Liv?”
“Ready when you are,” she called back. She wore her ebony armor and cloak emblazoned with the Valedstorm family crest, probably at Ashton’s direction, to remind everyone that she was the Death God.
Blood nodded, then mounted the platform and cleared his throat loudly.
“We will now see a demonstration from Fernest’s greatest sword fighter, Lieutenant General Olivia. Training isn’t all about going through the motions yourself—even just seeing an expert at work is valuable training in and of itself. Think of it as a kind of master class.” Feeling that he’d said the sort of thing he needed to say, Blood gave the signal and said, “Let’s get started.”
Olivia slid the ebony blade from its scabbard. All eyes were fixed on her.
She took one step forward, then slowly crouched down—
“Huh?” Blood blurted out like an idiot before anyone else could speak. Somehow, Olivia was now at the other end of the training ground, waving enthusiastically at them. And that wasn’t the only strange occurrence. The straw dolls were all strewn on the ground, leaking red fluid.
I bet Ashton told them to put something like blood in the dummies. But more importantly, that was unbelievable, what she just did. I did manage to follow her, but only just...
That was the best even Blood had been able to do. Not only the soldiers of the Royal Army, but the guardians of the Winged Crusaders, too, were staring at the fallen dummies. Their faces were impossible to read. Except for Amelia, that is, whose clenched fists were trembling.
“Was that enough?” Olivia called, coming back over with her scarlet-drenched sword in one hand. Understanding seemed to dawn on the guardians, and, as if they’d rehearsed it, they all backed away. More than a few even let out tiny screams as Olivia approached, smiling innocently. The only ones who remained were a group of soldiers who had started off in Olivia’s Independent Cavalry Regiment and knew what she could do. They all stood with their chests thrown out in pride.
Blood thanked Olivia, then returned to the platform to make the most of the moment.
“That concludes the demonstration. Lieutenant General Olivia provided us with an excellent example of her sword work, which I hope will provide you with some mental sustenance to work even harder in your training. Also, I’m sure I don’t need to tell any of you this now, but remember that anyone who gets in the lieutenant general’s way will meet the same fate as those dummies. She’s a champion of love—to her, there’s nothing more important than cooperation and harmony—which is to say, she means to make anyone who starts another fight, for any reason, into her own...sustenance.” Blood finished with a ghoulish smile.
As he briskly descended from the platform, he saw Olivia looking puzzled, mouthing, “Co-o-pe-ra-tion? Har-mo-ny? Knight...of love?”
That day saw an abrupt end to the squabbles between the Royal Army and the Winged Crusaders. Olivia’s reputation among the latter had spread like wildfire.
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